The expanding role of paid social media content ads

​Content marketers who watched social media grow in front of their eyes should be excited to see where popular networks like Facebook and Twitter will go next. Brafton has already reported on the up-and-coming Twitter Ads API, which will help position relevant Promoted Tweets in front of users. We’ve also covered recent insights that show the preferred networks of different demographics. These reports put the power of social media marketing into greater perspective by highlighting the different benefits of each site, and companies even understand the importance of social care today.

However, social advertising through paid posts has always lagged behind organic marketing adoption. Whether this fact of life is because social ads may disrupt the user experience or they don’t provide brands with ROI, networks needed to improve their offerings, and Twitter and Facebook delivered. A new study conducted by Digiday for Vizu found that 64 percent of U.S. advertisers will increase their paid social media budgets in 2013. Two percent say they will decrease their investments in paid social.

The data also found that 26 percent of surveyed businesses will increase spending on social media advertising by at least 11 percent. This trend has compelled eMarketer to estimate that U.S. advertisers will spend $4.1 billion on paid social media ads over the next 12 months, increasing to approximately $5 billion next year.

The report also found that the majority of respondents view paid social ads as branding tools to increase product or service awareness and as a way to keep a company’s name in front of impressionable shoppers. While paid ads offer their own unique benefits, businesses still understand that organic social media content draws the most attention. The report showed that 70 percent of respondents would dedicate between 1 percent and 10 percent of their overall online marketing budget​s​ to paid social ads – a minimal investment when compared to other channels and outreach initiatives.

Ted Karczewski is an Executive Communications Associate at Brafton. He works to develop his own voice and apply his passions to the evolving world of SEO and content marketing, but he doesn't shy away from writing for fun. After graduating from Suffolk University, Ted used his Communications degree to test out Sports Journalism before Marketing at Brafton.